Anyone relocated from ENG to WALES?

tooldle

silvercar said:

walesdave said:

You might want to check with your children which two GCSE subjects they want to give up so the Welsh Language Fascists (and I don't use that term lightly) can impose both Welsh GCSE and Welsh Baccalaureate - even if your eldest arrives in Wales a month before taking GCSEs, they WILL be sitting Welsh GCSE.
And then ask yourself if you might want to work in the public sector (I'm not sure how teachers are classed) as the Welsh Government has passed a law which excludes Welsh Language requirements from 'anti-discrimination' laws. If you want to work in the public sector, you MUST have at least 'courtesy' level Welsh, or 100% commit to learning it asap.
I'm Welsh and proud (moved back here 22 years ago after many years away) but if I had to make the choice again, I'd choose differently.

My nieces have recently taken GCSEs. They had to take the welsh baccalaureate but not the welsh language gcse. In danger of generalising, but if their school (in Swansea) is anything to go by, there weren’t many lessons for the baccalaureate, it certainly didn’t require dropping another subject to facilitate it. A lot of pupils didn’t take the course or the exam very seriously at all. Maybe in Welsh speaking areas it is of higher regard. 

Adding to Silvercar's comment. Welsh is a compulsory subject in the national curriculum through to end of Key Stage 4. However, pupils do not have to enter the GCSE examination. 

Ath_Wat

walesdave said:

You might want to check with your children which two GCSE subjects they want to give up so the Welsh Language Fascists (and I don't use that term lightly) can impose both Welsh GCSE and Welsh Baccalaureate - even if your eldest arrives in Wales a month before taking GCSEs, they WILL be sitting Welsh GCSE.

Sorry this is silly as well.  If your child arrives in Wales a month before GCSEs, they would have to sit the exams at the previous exam board, just as they would if they moved within England.  Welsh GCSE, which even if they were forced to sit it would just be an additional exam they would fail, would be the least of their worries.  The curriculum would be entirely different for things like history, they'd be trying to answer questions on the Second World War when they'd studied the Industrial Revolution.

Woolsery

We almost bought in Wales and spent 3 years learning the nuances of different areas in just one part of it. We had some help on the inside from English ex-pats too. It is a minefield. In the end, I came to the conclusion South Pembs was the 'safest' of the options in our chosen area, but there 'well-mixed' villages elsewhere too.

In the event, we relocated to the devil we knew in Devon, but here it's also a large area to consider. Anyone thinking of coming here needs to appreciate there's considerable differences in living experience between south and north, coast and countryside. We see people getting it wrong all the time: three years and the house is up for sale.

DE_612183

Woolsery said:

We almost bought in Wales and spent 3 years learning the nuances of different areas in just one part of it. We had some help on the inside from English ex-pats too. It is a minefield. 

Not any more it's not - thanks to Thatcher!

daveyjp

My sister in law moved back to Wales from the south east about 20 years when her son was 3 so he could fo to Welsh school.

With about 50% of top Welsh secondaries teaching in Welsh it is a way of getting a excellent selective education without paying privately. 

Woolsery

DE_612183 said:

Woolsery said:

We almost bought in Wales and spent 3 years learning the nuances of different areas in just one part of it. We had some help on the inside from English ex-pats too. It is a minefield. 

Not any more it's not - thanks to Thatcher!

Ah, that's an area I wouldn't be looking in. Mostly English speaking, perhaps, but other considerations I'll not go into here.

liberty_lily

We've no experience of the teaching aspect (our one DS is an adult living in SE England) of life in Wales, but DH and I moved here from England 4.5 years ago, so have some knowledge of life as 'incomers'.

We are about three miles south of Llandeilo in rural Carmarthenshire. Having spent a couple of years researching across several counties (Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys as well as Carmarthenshire) we decided we wanted to be somewhere rural with a bit of land, few neighbours and close-ish to a thriving market town. Narberth was our first choice but when the 'right' (although that's debatable as truthfully I never liked the house we bought!) property turned up for sale here, we made the decision that Llandeilo came a very close second. In fact, since then we've decided it's actually nicer!

DH is self-employed and I don't work (unless you count working 24/7 on our DIY house and garden refurb!), but we have picked up a few Welsh phrases which have proved useful and appreciated by the local population (although our pronunciation is often - and no doubt quite rightly, lol - the subject of ridicule).

In Llandeilo and locally generally we hear quite a few Welsh speakers and DH has become friends with a couple for whom Welsh is their first language - they speak it exclusively at home, watch Welsh tv etc. Early on we did have a few people - joking I'm sure, but I wasn't in the right mind set at the time - say our home should be burned as the English weren't welcome here. Plus our (Welsh) neighbours have only spoken to us once in 4.5 years!

Although parts of Wales are undeniably beautiful - and we love the vast, sandy and virtually empty beaches - we both really miss 'home' (South Coast of England, although more recently we've lived in the West Midlands, North Essex and Wiltshire, so we're not coming at it exclusively from a south coast POV) and during 2023 we plan on selling up and moving back.

For us I just don't think living here in Wales has worked - as you'd expect, but perhaps we naively didn't realise, life is very different here and hasn't lived up to my (probably too high!) expectations. I miss so much...not just family but certain cultural stuff that is very location specific. Although we'll miss lovely Llandeilo, sadly we can't wait to go.

Coincidentally, yesterday DH was speaking to clients who've become friends and they've just made the same decision. They bought here in Carmarthenshire (Lower Brynamman which wouldn't be my choice) three years ago but only moved into the property from London six months ago once the refurbishment was almost finished. Despite her sister living in Wales (Ceredigion), she hates it here and he admits they bought in the wrong location (problems mainly with local land owned by travellers who are using it for holding noisy festivals for which permission hasn't been granted). They plan to move instead to Somerset. 

Snookie12cat

South Wales is where 75% of the population live. If you want to live in Wales but it mostly feel like you haven't left England, that's the place to go 🤣 

tooldle

There are considerable differences of scale. Most towns and cities are very small when compared with England. There can also be significant gaps between places. On the south coast of England, there is more or less a continuous urban sprawl, despite there being individual towns and cities. 
Culturally things are indeed different. Rugby is a great example. In my home town, Rugby is largely a private school sport. Here in Wales, rugby is played in most schools. It is the national obsession and, if the national team are playing it becomes a significant date on the calendar. We have specific tv trailers to support the national team in the six nations, for example. People get together to watch the match at home, or in the pub and many will bring out their daffodil hats and flags etc. 
St David's day, St Dynwen's day etc, are celebrated. I don't remember anything happening on St George's day, when i was resident in England. 
People are friendly, even very friendly. Conversations with random strangers are the norm here. 
Setting up somewhere new is always difficult. However, if you are both working and the children are in school you have the benefit of work and school relationships to build on, to help establish your social circle. Don't under estimate how difficult this would be if you opted for a isolated location, and had neither work or children to help you establish. 
The population is diverse with around 30% of us not born in Wales. 

zagfles

liberty_lily said:

We've no experience of the teaching aspect (our one DS is an adult living in SE England) of life in Wales, but DH and I moved here from England 4.5 years ago, so have some knowledge of life as 'incomers'.

We are about three miles south of Llandeilo in rural Carmarthenshire. Having spent a couple of years researching across several counties (Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys as well as Carmarthenshire) we decided we wanted to be somewhere rural with a bit of land, few neighbours and close-ish to a thriving market town. Narberth was our first choice but when the 'right' (although that's debatable as truthfully I never liked the house we bought!) property turned up for sale here, we made the decision that Llandeilo came a very close second. In fact, since then we've decided it's actually nicer!

DH is self-employed and I don't work (unless you count working 24/7 on our DIY house and garden refurb!), but we have picked up a few Welsh phrases which have proved useful and appreciated by the local population (although our pronunciation is often - and no doubt quite rightly, lol - the subject of ridicule).

In Llandeilo and locally generally we hear quite a few Welsh speakers and DH has become friends with a couple for whom Welsh is their first language - they speak it exclusively at home, watch Welsh tv etc. Early on we did have a few people - joking I'm sure, but I wasn't in the right mind set at the time - say our home should be burned as the English weren't welcome here. Plus our (Welsh) neighbours have only spoken to us once in 4.5 years!

Although parts of Wales are undeniably beautiful - and we love the vast, sandy and virtually empty beaches - we both really miss 'home' (South Coast of England, although more recently we've lived in the West Midlands, North Essex and Wiltshire, so we're not coming at it exclusively from a south coast POV) and during 2023 we plan on selling up and moving back.

For us I just don't think living here in Wales has worked - as you'd expect, but perhaps we naively didn't realise, life is very different here and hasn't lived up to my (probably too high!) expectations. I miss so much...not just family but certain cultural stuff that is very location specific. Although we'll miss lovely Llandeilo, sadly we can't wait to go.

Coincidentally, yesterday DH was speaking to clients who've become friends and they've just made the same decision. They bought here in Carmarthenshire (Lower Brynamman which wouldn't be my choice) three years ago but only moved into the property from London six months ago once the refurbishment was almost finished. Despite her sister living in Wales (Ceredigion), she hates it here and he admits they bought in the wrong location (problems mainly with local land owned by travellers who are using it for holding noisy festivals for which permission hasn't been granted). They plan to move instead to Somerset. 

You should have reported that to the police as a hate crime. Imagine making that "joke" to a non-English immigrant in England.